


Mother & Child

by chimneysmoke (recension)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, HP: Epilogue Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 08:17:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1104545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/recension/pseuds/chimneysmoke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Ginny Weasley + ensemble, AU + post-epilogue, the ghost of tom riddle still lingers, biding its time (i had a hole in the middle where the lightning went through)"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mother & Child

**Author's Note:**

> For the _Welcome Home_ Harry Potter LJ ficathon.
> 
> Original prompt: "ginny weasley + ensemble, AU + post-epilogue, the ghost of tom riddle still lingers, biding its time (i had a hole in the middle where the lightning went through)"

Ginny should have said something. She know she should have said something, mentioned something, said it when she had the chance. But when the dust of the Battle began to settle it hardly seemed worth it to kick things up again, even if the sensation in the pit of her wouldn't go away. Even if it got stronger the moment Lord Voldemort dissolved into dust.

The last of the horcruxes, gone.

Or so they thought.

 

Maybe it was girlish idiocy, or loneliness, or vanity, but she'd gotten so used to having Tom around. He wasn't a bother, just someone to talk to in the dark. Someone to listen to her problems. No one's business but her own. Ever since the diary dissolved she'd even been sure he was just a figment of her imagination, but as Voldemort finally faded into air the voice inside her grew stronger. 

She should have said something.

Harry was the horcrux Voldemort had never meant to make, but the thing about splinters was they often broke into tinier parts. Each break of a soul could break into millions of tiny bits, too weak to remain whole. Ginny was the horcrux Tom Riddle had never meant to make. He lived on within her. 

Until the day he didn't.

 

She woke up in the hospital bed surrounded by her family, her mother cooing over the newborn in her arms. Molly had lots of practice with grandchildren by now, but still this one was special. Her only daughter's first. _I knew she'd be like this, Tom._ Ginny spoke out of habit to her imaginary friend, only to find a resounding silence bouncing back from the corners of her mind.

_Tom?_

"He's a lovely child, Ginny dear," Molly murmured, letting the baby hold onto her finger tight as he struggled against his blanket, stretching and hiccuping before breaking way to a cry. "Oh he's hungry, I think. We've been letting you sleep. You should try to feed him for the first time though," Molly advised her daughter, helping Ginny sit up in the bed and arrange the baby at her breast.

Ginny stroked James' cheek, proud that the reflex worked and the baby opened his mouth for her nipple, shutting his eyes once he found it as he began to suckle. Ginny smiled down at her child and cradled him, running the back of a finger over his bald head.

James opened his eyes and stared into hers. His irises were dark brown pools, not amber like her own or green like Harry's, or blue like newborns' usually were. For the first time not a day after he was born, Ginny felt her intuition kick in. She'd recognize her oldest friend anywhere.

_Tom?_

She stared into her child's eyes praying silently every hope and last wish that she was wrong. She really should have said something.


End file.
